Hi, I have screwed up and can't seem to fix my problem. I reformatted my box from Win2K to WinXP Pro and had some Encrypted Files on my D: (c: OS, d: files). Now I get a access denied when I try to open the file. I completly forgot about this file and did not bother saving the recovery key and cert elsewhere before reformatting. When I look at who is allowed to see the file...i notice that it was the first user I created in XP, but i then renamed that user through My Computer>Manage>Local User instead of Control Panel and thus gained a new SID. There is no Recovery agent listed so I created on (cipher /r:filename) and then installed through Local Security Policy,but that still didnt help. I also tried adding another user to be able to access the file but to no luck. I kept getting this error : EFSADU(Error code 5) cannot add user. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can access this file?? Thanks, John

First off, if you just renamed an account, the SID stayed the same. Through all that you didn't mention anything about the local administrator account, try logging on as the Administrator (who was the default recovery agent) and go to the Properties of the file or folder and in the Advanced area, try unchecking the box labelled Encrypt Contents to Secure Data...